The first Kennedy she met was Kerry, who was her roommate at Brown University. It didn’t take much time for Mary to catch the eye of Kerry’s older brother Bobby Kennedy Jr. — even though he was married to wife Emily Black at the time, with two children. He soon had his first marriage annulled, some say through Vatican connections, and Mary became Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

From that point on, she became what she had always wanted to be: a wife and mother. From a family of five sisters herself, Mary Kennedy had four children with Bobby, and she devoted herself to her family.

“She just lived for him,” said one close friend who asked not to be named. “And she lived for their children.”

When her body was found on Wednesday, not one of those children had reached the age of 18.

How could this happen? How could a mother so devoted to her kids end her life like this? Just days after Mother’s Day?

Mary didn’t have a careerist bone in her body. She was active in fund-raising for environmental causes, and because her son has terrible food allergies, attempts to find a cure. She devoted herself to her family.

But the marriage wasn’t as fairy-tale as she had hoped. Friends of Bobby’s say that she wanted him to run for office and felt his environmental activism wasn’t enough. She wanted to be the wife of a senator, or governor, at the least, they say. But with a 1983 heroin arrest on Kennedy’s record, that was not very likely. And Kennedy developed a rare voicebox disorder (spasmodic dysphonia) that made speechmaking difficult.

Then there were the rumors.

Periodically over the years, reporters have called Kennedy about this Broadway musical star, or that alluring wealthy environmentalist. We tried not to judge someone who lost his father so brutally and publicly at the age of 14. But Mary had to hear the same rumors.

Kennedy took adventure travel trips to distant places a lot, often without her.

“I remember talking with Mary at one of the NRDC benefits before they separated,” said another friend. “She said that Bobby had taken her along on one of his trips to South America, and she was glowing. Despite all the heartache and the fighting and the ugliness, she still loved him.”

Many of the reports of her death mention her two arrests for DUI. She shouldn’t be remembered for that. If the rumors were true, it would drive anybody to drink.

Certainly since the split in 2010, Mary must have read that Bobby was now dating “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Cheryl Hines. Still pretty, Mary dated no one, and perhaps kept up hopes for a reconciliation.

In recent months, family and friends have been worried that Mary was becoming so “fragile.” It got worse after Bobby began telling friends that he had taken custody of the kids.

Mary’s four sisters hoped to bring her to Tuscany this summer for a healing trip. She was still dwelling on Bobby.

“The divorce was torturous for her. But after they split, Mary said they were actually getting along better, that he’d come over to the house and they would have a good time,” said another friend. “But I think she was just putting on a brave face.”